Time for the weekly battle with Daughter #1’s boyfriend K, trapped with us for the duration of lockdown.

We’d left it a bit late in the day to start (family quiz evening!) so elected to play To The Strongest. I would take the Neo-Sumerians, K would play the Athenian Hoplite Greeks. This is one of our favourite combinations: both sides consisting mostly of deep spear-armed blocks of infantry.

In TTS, there are several variants of the basic Sumerian army. In chronological order, they are Dynastic Sumerian, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian. I had chosen the Neo-Sumerians because although their spear blocks are almost all raw citizen militia , they do have the ability to field a sizeable Royal Guard of archers and axemen.

My plan, therefore, was to keep my spearmen away from the mincing-machine of his Hoplites whilst the Royal Guard knocked out as much of the rest of his army as possible. I could then surround the Hoplites and polish them off.

Here’s what actually happened in the form of a pictorial report…

The brave and noble Neo-Sumerians: veteran battlecars on the right, militia in the middle, Royal Guard on the left

The City Militia: some of them know which way up to hold their spear!

The Royal Guard: two units of archers, two units of axemen, one unit of spearmen

Two powerful Hoplite units, and their associated light infantry, face my battlecars

More Hoplites in the centre (ignore the heroes out front!), with the cavalry on their right, and even more Hoplites to their right

Hoplites are very fast in a straight line! I can see my plan falling apart.

My main line holds back as planned...but what is the Royal Guard doing?

"Now's your time, Neo-Maitland. Up Guards and at 'em!"

Dressing on the hill. In the distance, the Royal Guard has started to advance.

Lot's happening. First unit of battlecars hurtles forward. Hoplites take the hill but miraculously, the right hand militia unit turns to take them in the flank.

Hoplites in the centre. Past them, the Royal Guard finally get stuck in.

City militia wishing they were somewhere else.

Royal Guard axemen losing to the raw Greek cavalry!

The other unit of axemen is having more success, but there's a lot of Hoplites to get through!!

Battlecars hold off one unit of Hoplites, whilst the other is now surrounded. City militia just couldn't seem to finish them off despite flank advantage.

Plan falling apart: main militia line now in contact with Athenian Hoplites!

Axemen finally defeat Greek horse

One unit of Hoplites taken out by the second line of battlecars. City militia again fail to charge a flank.

The main line is crumbling...but we have killed three of his four Generals, a Hoplite unit, and his horsemen.

So it's neck and neck...but that line is really starting to crumble now!

And I'll probably lose my camp soon too!

City Spearmen (not militia) about to kill off a unit of Lights who have failed to evade. Breaking one more unit will do it...

The Royal Guard axemen are all dead, but they have done enough damage to the reserve Hoplites to let the Royal Guard archers finish them off.

And that was the battle won, with only one of my coins remaining!

Aftermath

Well that was a very close run thing!

The Royal Guard performed appallingly, and it was really only the fact that K kept getting his generals killed that allowed me to win the day. K lost three officers, take two away and he would have had four coins remaining as his Hoplites made mincemeat out of my militia. As it was, I scraped home with only one coin to spare.

Another great game!